July 20 City Council Meeting

Cait’s Council Comments 7-20-26

WHERE’S THE FUN? 

First concert of the summer concert series was last week.  Next one is July 30th; there is a movie night after Wednesday’s Farmers Market. 

PUBLIC COMMENT

Tracy Banaszynski commented in support of raising Park Impact Fees (PIF).  She said that parks are essential and that it’s reasonable to have new development pay for them. She does not believe that people buying “larger luxury homes” in Kenmore will miss the money they have to pay for PIFs. 

There were three other commenters: one in support of fiscal responsibility and auditing, public access to public facilities and a tiered approach to PIF.  The other two commenters supported increasing PIFs and directly referenced support of Tracy Banaszynski’s comments. 

CONSENT AGENDA

CM Culver removed item D from the Consent Agenda. Consent agenda approved unanimously.

ITEM D: PARK IMPACT FEES

CM Culver said that there is consensus that impact fees are a “fair way to fund additional services” and that the WA Department of Commerce, in 2019, said that increases in housing costs “usually are not” due to impact fees making production more expensive. He argued that homebuyers value infrastructure and take it into account when determining what they will pay for a home, and that imposing more PIFs is an equitable distribution of responsibility.  He said new single-family construction is a median $1.8m and stated that we can scale these fees for smaller developments. He asked to move the fees to 80%. 

CM Culver moved to adopt the fees; CM Adman seconded.  CM Culver moved to amend to 80%; CM Adman seconded again.

CM Loutsis expressed support for parks and spoke as the youngest member on the council, and the difficulties that his generation find affording a home purchase.  He noted that the calls for increasing fees are coming from people who are already living in their homes and will not be impacted by these fees, or housing affordability.  He supports parks and people will pay this, but each thousand dollars that we increase here and there decreases the affordability, and the likelihood that we attract young people. This will have a demographic shift.  He observed that basic economic principles dedicate that these fees will pass through; you cannot require developers to take the entire burden. Increasing the cost of housing pushes people further and further out, which is why we have so much urban sprawl.  He expressed concerns about these fees being placed on smaller units at a higher percentage cost than larger units. He expressed support for creating a tiered, progressive approach, so larger luxury units would pay a higher amount. 

CITY ATTORNEY NOTED: Council can’t make a substantive change to the code without a new public hearing. Changing the fee to 80% is a substantive change.

CM O’Cain said she supports parks, but the fees do filter through to buyers, and when people buy a home, it’s usually a stretch.  She noted that council has spent several meetings on this already, and where she understands the “stick it to the rich” approach, we don’t have that many rich people in Kenmore. We all deserve to live in a healthy, affordable, Kenmore.

DM Sasson said that she bought her first home in her 40s, and there were 80 new homes built on her block in the first five years after she purchased.  She said there are large homes being built in her neighborhood and they are not sitting on the market;  people are buying them and moving in with two Teslas.  She believes people with extreme wealth are moving to Kenmore.

CM Adman thinks PIFs are progressive, and that parks are what make Kenmore a great place to live and he would be OK with 90%.

Mayor Herbig said that he would urge a no vote on due to Council’s previous two votes and consensus.  He would encourage councilmembers to have these conversations prior to the public hearing, rather than relitigating something that had already come up for vote, and trying to take multiple bites at the apple.

CM Culver said that these are not starter homes, 

CM Loutsis pointed out that 500sf residences are on here, and those are starter homes; people moving into those probably cannot afford the larger ones.

CM O’Cain reminded council that they’ve already increased fees that impact housing in other areas. 

Mayor Herbig noted that most of the homes that will be built in Kenmore are going to be townhomes or condos, they won’t be luxury homes.  This will impact all of them and make them less affordable.

VOTE ON AMENDMENT TO 80%:  CM Loutsis, Mayor Herbig, and CM O’Cain opposed. Motion passed.

Council discussed bringing this back for another public hearing in September, including the tiered approach. 

MOTION TO POSTPONE: CM Marshall moved to postpone the rest of the motion and direct staff to research the tiered approach PIF. Mayor Herbig seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 

BOATHOUSE 

Jennifer Gordon, Public Works Operations Director presented on the history of the boathouse, which was constructed in 2020. The City does not run any programs; they are responsible for the building envelope and the restrooms that are accessible to the public.   Agreements with KCRC and Boosters (Inglemoor High School rowing) both allow for Kenmore to charge rent at this time by contract. Staff recommended that KCRC pay 75% of the rent and Boosters 25%, with a total rent of $4,050 per month. 

CM Loutsis asked if the clubs would be interested in renting in the off season.  He is in favor of charging rent; it makes sense when it comes to almost an exclusive use of a public facility. If we raise them too much, we lose the benefit that they provide to the community.

CM Culver said this would cover the bill in 20 years.  He thinks we need to see something more.  He would like to see the clubs fundraise. Fiscal responsibility is a very top priority and he thinks it’s critical to community trust. 

CM Adman said he read the agenda packet and history, and he’s heard comments from the community wanting it to be paid back. He thinks its unrealistic for the small non-profits to pay back the debt.  Their programming could be at risk if we assess a certain level of rent, and we need to understand the impact on the programs before assessing rent. 

CM O’Cain is also in support of more time; it’s a huge burden, what we’re asking today, and wants to ensure that these are rents they can afford. 

CM Marshall noted that the staff formulation is a significant deduction from the original contractor. He wants to have more time. 

DM Sasson asked if the contracts had been reviewed and if the clubs were willing to sign at this level [there are no contracts].  She would like more time to make sure that this works with the clubs. 

Mayor Herbig said that the feedback that we received from the clubs say that this is a stretch, but it’s a doable stretch.  He did not hear consensus on moving forward during this meeting; he asked that Staff bring this back in September. 

PRO / CON COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS 

Staff overviewed the process of appointing the Proposition 1 Pro/Con committee appointments. Council ranked their choices prior to the meeting, using a “ranked choice” approach. 

CM Loutsis said he learned a lesson on using ranked-choice voting with multiple candidates, which it doesn’t really work with. Mayor Herbig said he’d learned the same lesson.

CM Culver moved to adopt the appointments to the pro/con committee. CM Adman seconded. 

Motion passed with CM Marshall opposed. 

EASING RESTRICTIONS ON TEMP HOMELESS SHELTERS

This ordinance came on the same night that STEP Housing was adopted on consent; it had a public hearing last year, but adoption delayed.  CM Culver moved to appoint; CM Loutsis seconded. 

DM Sasson expressed concern about retaining a background check requirement because it’s so time consuming for temporary shelters.  

Reilly Rosbotham, planner, said that he’d reached out to KCRHA and and background checks are a typical requirement for temporary shelters but it has been removed for emergency shelters. The sex-offender prohibition was removed to be compliant with State law.

Mayor Herbig said that he’s pleased that we can join our neighbors in hosting severe weather shelters. 

COUNCIL REPORTS

CM O’Cain spoke about the destructive nature of AI, and how it disconnects us from reality and destroys our planet. 

CM Marshall said that he’s very interested in our passage of PSH ordinance tonight. He respects our past discussions and so he didn’t pull it out of our consent agenda.  He would urge people to consider treatment as part of our solutioning. 

CM Culver said he’s completely here for evidence-based decision making.

CM Loutsis said he’d just been to the Sea Shore meeting. 

DM Sasson spoke about King County Executive Zahilay’s “Breaking the Cycle” initiative listening session, cohosted with NHUSA.